Sign for street-cars.



No. 649,304. Patented May 8, I900. L. HASSELBUSCH.

SIGN FUR STREET CARS.

\ (Application filed. Jan. 20, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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UNl TED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS HASSELBUSCH, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SIGN FOR STREET-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 649,304, dated May 8, 1900.

Application filed January 20, 1900. Serial No. 2,141. (No model.)

[0 ft whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, LOUIS IIASSELBUSCH, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Signs for Cars, of which the following is a :full, clear, and exact description. One purpose of this invention is to provide revoluble or changeable signs especially adapted to be placed upon the roofs of streetcars or other vehicles to indicate the direction or destination to which said ear or vehicle is traveling.

It is a further purpose to so construct the sign that the hood or cover employed may be readily removed to inspect or to change the signs and the signs shifted from the platform or the interior of the vehicle and locked in their shifted position.

Another purpose of the invention is to so construct and locate the device that the signs, which are transparent, will be illuminated at night by the light radiating from the clear story or interior of the car, thus dispensing with an especial lamp.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Referen ce is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the improved device applied to a street-car. Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the roof of the car and a vertical section through the casing of the device, illustrating the parts contained within the casing in side elevation. Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section taken practically on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the line a 4 of Fig. 2.

Two standards A are secured in any suitable or approved manner on the roof B, preferably the projecting end of the roof, and the standards are placed one near each side of this portion of the roof, asis also shown in Fig. 1. A shaft 10 is mounted to turn in these standards at a point below their upper ends, and at one end of the shaft a bevel gear 11 is secured, which meshes with a corresponding gear 12, secured to the upper end of a vertical shaft 13, which latter shaft is journaled in and extends through the pro jecting portion of the roof of the car and terminates in a handle 1&- within convenient reach of a person on the platform ofthe car, or the device may be placed on the side of a car and be operated from the inside.

A series of frames 15 is secured to the shaft 10 and radiates therefrom. These frames may be two in number; but in the drawings three are shown, and more may be employed, if desired. Each frame 15 contains a transparent sign 16, held in position in the frame by clips 17 or by other well-known devices. These signs revolve when the shaft 10 is turned, turning within a hood 1.8. This hood is usually semicircular and covers the upper portion of the shaft 10, and consequently conceals the uppermost sign 16, as shown in Fig. 3. The said hood is removably supported by the standards A, the hood having sockets 19 formed therein at the ends, which receive the upper end portions of the standards, as shown in Fig. 2. The hood is likewise provided at one of its ends with an extension 20, which protects the gears 11 and 12 from the weather.

A partition 21 is longitudinally and cen trally placed in the hood, so that the light which is directed to the rear of the hood will not shine through the uppermost sign, while the central sign, when three are employed, presents its edge to the front portion of the car, and the third sign extends down perpendicularly below the hood, and the light from the clear story or interior of the car strikes this lower sign and illuminates it. It maybe here remarked that the device is'so placed on the roof that the rear of the device faces the end pane in the clear story 0 of the car, and in order that the light may fully shine on the lowermost sign the rear portion 31 of the hood is cut away in a downward and forward direction, as shown in Fig. 3. If four or more signs are carried by the shaft 10, the partition 21 may be of dark cloth, so that the signs may readily pass the same. Preferably, however, two or three signs are employed, and the partition 21 is rigid, so that the movement of the signs is back and forth or to and from'the partition.

A collar 22 is secured on the shaft 13 just above the roof of the car, and the shaft passes through a block 23, attached in any approved manner to the under face of the roof of the car, and this block is provided with a series of recesses 24. (Shown best in Fig. 4.) These recesses correspond in number and in distance apart to the number of signs and the distance between signs, and for the information of the attendant the name of a sign is produced opposite or near to each one of the recesses 24. A pointer is loosely mounted on the vertical shaft 13 just below the block 23, and

this pointer is provided with a projection 26,"

adapted to enter any one of the recesses 24 in the block 23. The pointer 25 is held normally in engagement with this block by a spring 28, which is coiled around the shaft 13 and has bearing against the under side of the hub of the pointer and upon a collar 27, secured to the shaft 13 at a point below the block 23. The projection or rib 26 of the pointer is drawn out from the recess 24, in which it may be placed, so that the shaft 13 may be turned by drawing downward upon a handle 30, attached to a rod 29, having guided and sliding rnovement in the shaft 13, the upper end of the rod being attached to the hub of the pointer 25. Thus in operation if a sign is to he changed either the conductor or the motornian of the car will draw down on the handle 30, and while holding the handle 30 in its lower position will turn the shaft 13 until the rib of the pointer is opposite the recess 24 in the block 23, at which the name of the desired street is produced, whereupon the han- 116 30 is released, and the spring 28 will serve tothrow the rib 26 of the pointer into the adjaeent recess 24, and the proper sign will be held pendent from the shaft 10 and visible from the street.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In a sign for cars and other vehicles, a shaft, a support in which the shaft is mounted, signs carried by said shaft and radially secured thereto, a hood supported over the upper portion of the shaft, a partition within the hood, parallel with the longitudinal axis of the signs, and means for turning the shaft to move the signs to and from the partition,

whereby only one sign at a time is exposed to view.

. 2. The combination of a shaft mounted to turn, a plurality of signs carried thereby, a hood partly enveloping the signs, and an opaque partition carried in the hood.

The combination of a shaft mounted to rock, a plurality of signs carried thereby, a hood partly enveloping the signs, and a rigid partition mounted in the hood and extending between the signs and toward the shaft so that the shaft maybe rocked to move the signs toward and from the partition, for the purpose described.

4. The combination with a car, of a plurality of signs connected to turn on a common axis and disposed radially thereof and juxtaposed to a window of the car, so that the light from the interior of the car will illuminate the signs, and a hood partly enveloping the signs to shade a part thereof.

5. The combination of two standards, a shaft mounted to turn therein, a sign attached to and carried by the shaft, and a hood adapted to shade the signs, the hood having sockets formed thereon in which the upper ends of the standards are received, whereby to mount the hood.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LOUIS HASSELBUSCH.

Witnesses:

A. WV. FELBLING, Louis A. SHOENEBE. 

